Sooty (2001-04)

I've been watching back some of Sooty from 2001-04 lately and I've noticed that the episodes from third series in 2003/04 (the last before the 7 year hiatus) are credited in the closing credits as © Granada Kids 2002, which was the year the second series was produced and first broadcast.

So it's got me thinking. Did Granada and Sooty Limited produce the episodes of series 2 & 3 in one bulk? Like with the CITV sitcom My Phone Genie, was it spilt into two halves? The first batch being aired in the autumn of 2002, and the rest...in rather obscure slots between summer 2003 and winter 2004?!

That series is pile of crap and is a disgrace, and its little wonder why sooty was off the air because of it. Change the voice of sue, and made her a cow, brought back some other characters which were disjointed over the whole series.

On reflection it was nowhere near as organic as it's predecessors.

Sooty and Sweep were a lot more violent with each other. I don't know why they bothered referencing Little Cousin Scampi in the theme song. There were some weak gags, and the puppet designs (from 2002) were easily the worst...most particularly Sweep and Butch. Richard barely even got to work hand-in-hand (see what I did there?) with the star of the show himself...and the cherry on the cake being the departures of Brenda Longman and Brian Sandford.

They did have some decent writers from the world of kids TV however, some of which have worked on certain childhood favourites of mine. There were some good one-liners in some episodes. I preferred Siobhan Moore's take on Mikki more than her successor.

I think the weakest episode that I have seen from the years of 2001-04 was the series 1 episode, 'Sad, Sad, Sooty'.

The 2001 series wasn't too bad (I've got it all on VHS still that I recorded). Brenda Longman still voiced Soo, the puppet design were OK. I remember being so disappointed by the 2002 series though. It just wasn't the Sooty (show) I grew up with and enjoyed. Soo had a character change and became rather naughty IIRC as well the voice change, and the puppet design change for all the characters

Thankfully we've had three further series since then that have been excellent, and have managed to acknowledge the history of the show whilst being more modern. The choice of the wedding episode to air first from the 2011 revival was fantastic as it got in the camper van, the other characters (Scampi, Butch, Ramsbottom, Sweep's Family etc) without being forced and the classic (to me) bedroom set. Hopefully not another five year wait for the next series!

The 2001 series was definitely the superior one, which was when they had writers like Peter Corey and Paul Rose. I liked the characterizations of Butch and Mikki, and of course Brenda as Soo and Brian as Sweep, who together were a dynamic combo. I think that all they blended quite well in that series. As for the interior design, Sooty Heights was better because it looked more like a hotel, and there was something Sooty & Co esque about it too. I still think that there are some decent episodes from 2002-04, Let's Get Camping and Sooty's Ghost come to mind...the latter having the best one-liner of that particular series!

It's definitely gone back to its more original roots now, and we of course have Richard to thank for that! 🙂

Sooty's Amazing Adventures (a short lived animation series from 1996/7) Richard Caddell loathed. So much so that when he bought the rights to the bear and subsequently received the masters to the animated series, those tapes went into a bonfire. However Caddell couldn't totally airbrush the series out of existence because it had been partly commercially released (I think it ran for 26 episodes, the first eight of which were pushed out on home video), off air recordings have appeared on YouTube and apparently Norway aired it in a dubbed format.

Oh yes! I read about that a while back. I had one of those official videos when I was a kid and still have to this day. I thought it was ok.

So the series has been wiped? WOW..

Richard is from my neck of the woods and started his career on the same stage I tread the boards now. Top guy.

I suppose after so long in the Corbett family taking the show out of that unit would mean a difficult period of adjustment.

I remember watching the first episode of Sooty and Co. and, being 8 and unaware of the politics in ITV behind the change, wondering what the hell had they done to Sooty - in the same way I wondered what the hell had happened to Oracle, TV-AM and all the good kids shows.

I imagine there's tapes elsewhere that aren't in his posession anyway.

Sooty and Co was my era growing up but when Matthew got off and it went to the hotel it wasn't as good, didn't Richard buy the rights off Granada and brought it back to its forma self with Sue coming back etc?

Richard brought the rights from "Hit" Granada nor thames own the back catalogue. Mathew sold the rights and retired it was then the new owners he created a hotel with Richard.